FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas man accused of killing and dismembering three people and burning their bodies in a dumpster last year was indicted by a grand jury Friday in the killing of his roommate several months earlier, prosecutors said.
Jason Alan Thornburg, 41, of Fort Worth, faces charges of murder and arson in the death of Mark Jewell, 61, of Fort Worth, according to a news release Friday from the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. If convicted, Thornburg faces between five to 99 years -- or life -- in prison, the release stated.
Thornburg was indicted last year on capital murder charges stemming from a Sept. 22, 2021, incident, the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth reported. The dismembered bodies of David Lueras, 42, Lauren Phillips, 34, and Maricruz Mathis, 33, were found in a burning dumpster, the district attorney’s office said in its news release.
The man is accused in an indictment of killing and burning his roommate in May 2021. Authorities say he also killed and dismembered three people and burned them in a dumpster in September. https://t.co/Gbrlar9j2F
— Fort Worth Star-Telegram (@startelegram) February 18, 2022
Their bodies were found dismembered and burning in a Fort Worth dumpster.
Thornburg was indicted for those three murders in December, according to The Associated Press.
Jewell’s body was found by firefighters after a gas explosion on May 21, 2021, at the Fort Worth home he shared with Thornburg, The Dallas Morning News reported.
According to an arrest affidavit, Thornburg admitted to cutting Jewell’s throat, uncapping a natural gas line and lighting a candle, the newspaper reported.
Thornburg’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Police had previously connected Thornburg to Jewell’s death but concluded that they did not have probable cause to arrest him until after the September killings, Fort Worth police homicide unit Sgt. Joe Loughman told the Star-Telegram.
Thornburg told investigators before he was arrested for the three murders in September that he had in-depth knowledge of the Bible and was being called by God to commit human sacrifices, the Star-Telegram reported. He told police he killed his girlfriend in 2017, followed by Jewell in May 2021 and then Lueras, Phillips and Mathis four months later, according to the newspaper.
The name of Thornburg’s girlfriend had been redacted in an arrest warrant, but her family identified her as Tanya Begay of Gallup, New Mexico, the Star-Telegram reported. Thornburg has not been charged in Begay’s death, according to the newspaper. Her body has not been found.
Thornburg remained in the Tarrant County jail, the Morning News reported. Bail was set at $1 million.
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